After watching a demo of Sonic Forces apocalyptic city level, I can say that Sega certainly seems on its way to nailing the latter. Though the iteration of Forces I saw was an alpha build, the cobblestone streets Sonic sped his way through looked beautiful, even as the world around him descended into chaos — a chaos that I found enjoyable to watch, though. You can see a bit of it in the brand new gameplay reveal:

Even though Sonic, of course, has got to go fast, the camera moved at just a steady enough pace to allow me to take in and appreciate the orchestrated disorder, like falling debris or a robot under attack further toward the horizon, peppered throughout the environment. (No sign of a killer whale chasing Sonic just yet, however.) The team behind Sonic Forces looks to be aiming for a grand scale with its worlds, and none of it became too distracting or overwhelming that I lost sight of Sonic himself.

Watching more of the level, I remained as intrigued as I did when the Sonic 2017 project was first announced that the first visuals of the game depicted such an apocalyptic setting. Would this be a much darker story for the hedgehog and his friends?

Well, while watching the game, I was assured that this is one of the more aesthetically grim parts of the game. So you likely won’t have to worry that the world is meeting its horrific end in a dark and gritty Sonic reboot. That became clear to me as, even amidst the collapse of this cityscape, Sonic’s supporting cast — Tails and Amy among them — would occasionally chime in to shout updates on the calamitous situation at Sonic.

But in terms of what Sonic actually did in this busy world, watching Modern Sonic speed his way through town felt instantly familiar, for better and for worse. Forces certainly falls into the lineage of Sonic Colors and Generations. The camera smoothly transitioned between a behind-the-back, 3D viewpoint to a sidescrolling 2D plane. And as any good Sonic level should have, I was shown alternate paths through the world that promise verticality and worthy reasons to replay and achieve higher letter rankings on each level.

For those put off by the platforming focus of the Sonic Boom games, or even Sonic: Lost World, Forces looks to be hewing more to the gameplay of the Sega mascot’s stronger 3D outings, but to a degree that offered little surprise as my demo continued. Rings waited to be collected and Sonic’s homing jump attack worked just as expected as he made short work of enemies in his way.

That’s not to say changes and new twists could be on the way. The ominous overtones of Forces’ reveal feel indicative of that — there's something different here, though to what extent we don't yet know. For now Forces' first gameplay debut comes off as a reassurance that the better-received Sonic 3D games have not been forgotten, but just how much Forces will build on that foundation remains, like the reason Sonic finds himself in such a doomsday scenario, a mystery.

Jonathon Dornbush is an Associate Editor for IGN who played through Sonic 3D Blast far too many times as a child. Find him on Twitter @jmdornbush.